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Tag Archives: Health Care
How the Pressures of Professionalism Birthed the Depersonalized Doctor
Doctors have the difficult, yet necessary, job of saving lives. Doctors are often admired and respected. It’s understood that a doctor is responsible for the wellness of others, but who focuses on the wellness of a doctor? There are a lot of pressures surrounding being a doctor. It can affect the doctor, his or her peers, and the doctor’s patients. The general need to uphold professionalism has isolated doctors and even damaged the doctor-patient bond. To hear more information regarding this dilemma and potential solution, we invite you to read this article.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
A visit to the doctor’s office can be nerve-racking for the doctor and the patient. We know why patients are nervous about a doctor’s visit, but what could cause a doctor to have such an experience? The answer is the pressure to be a perfect, emotionless, depersonalized doctor. How well a doctor can follow those guidelines contribute to the image of a successful doctor. This very phenomenon that causes doctors to feel stressed and nervous is also a reason some patients feel negatively about a doctor’s visit. Is there a method that would benefit both the doctor and patient?
Roel van der Heijde and Dirk Deichmann of the University of Pennsylvania’s Knowledge@Wharton journal explore how a depersonalized doctor damages the doctor-patient relationship by focusing on professionalism. Doctors are taught to keep a neutral demeanor when dealing with their patients. This practice is supposed to keep patients calm and prevent doctors from being overwhelmed. This approach proved to do more harm than good. According to van der Heijde and Deichmann, “A number of studies have found that being a strong, silent doctor isn’t good for you. It contributes to depression, burnout, and the added strain of working with colleagues who are suffering in the same way.” There is no research that shows this approach is beneficial to patients either. The depersonalized doctor and their obsession with perfection should be phased out.
Doctors should adopt a new approach where showing more emotion to their peers and patients is normalized. Doctors can implement this by being open, understanding, and empathetic. This approach is beneficial for many reasons. If medical professionals worked in this manner, they would be less stressed and more productive. This new approach would change the stigma behind asking for help or collaborating with peers in a medical setting which could lead to better quality of care. Lastly, this approach will give the patient more control of their health. Instead of telling patients how to treat an issue, doctors should discuss the pros and cons of a treatment and allow the patient to be involved in the decision. The depersonalized doctor is one that does not know much about their patient personally. This is a major issue because a doctor needs to know what the patient needs are to better serve them. For an example, if a patient is looking for holistic approach to the non-life threatening condition they have and the doctor does not acknowledge their preferred approach, then the patient is going to feel negatively about going to see a doctor and may not follow the doctor’s recommendations.
As so many things change in medicine, our approaches should as well. Showing compassion will not only cause people to lose respect for doctors, it might even make the doctor-patient bond stronger. For more information about the depersonalized doctor, please read the full article on the Knowledge@Wharton website.
One Million Solutions in Health’s priority is sharing health news and finding solutions to issues surrounding health care. To learn more please contact info(at)onemillionsolutionsinhealth.org.
How Diversity in Health Care and Community Engagement Create a Positive Patient Experience
A doctor must know a patient to adequately treat them. Typically, when a subject is being studied in other sectors of science, researchers analyze the corresponding environment as well. This approach can be beneficial in health care. For that reason, medical professionals are encouraged to pay attention to social determinants. To improve the quality of health care, it is essential to understand all the problems patients face and what factors may be the cause. Bias is a major issue within the medical industry, but diversity is a great solution to this problem. If you are interested in the importance of diversity in a medical setting and innovative methods to bridge the doctor-patient gap, we invite you to read this article.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.news-medical.net
Although doctors use various diagnostic tests to determine a patient’s health, the start of the diagnosis process is the patient’s description of their symptoms. Since the patient narrative provides most of the information medical professionals use for a diagnosis, it is important to understand patients.
Diversity in health care improves the efficacy of communication. Culturally, some phrases are used differently than the dictionary definition, and patients can speak different languages. This can make communication in a health care setting a bit difficult. If there is a language barrier that causes misinterpretation, the patient can receive improper treatment or a misdiagnosis.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai believes in the importance of diversity; they developed technology to implement and promote diversity in health care. The Diversity and Inclusion Hub (DIH) aims to promote employment of women as well as people of color, identify health care related issues, and decrease bias. With this technology, The Icahn School of Medicine hopes to strengthen the relationships between medical professionals and their patients. In return, this will provide a better patient experience and potentially improve treatment.
Katie Anderton of News Medical states that “This endeavor – known as the DIH – will serve as an incubator for cutting-edge ideas, utilize the latest technology and data, and represents a first-of-its-kind effort among medical institutions to diversify the pipeline as a career path while using innovation and technology to address social determinants of health in our surrounding communities.” This technology will help pinpoint problems that would otherwise go unnoticed, and it will extensively brainstorm solutions. The Mount Sinai team also went a step further, working with local community leaders to better understand gaps in health care and building bonds with the community they serve. They acknowledge problems surrounding lack of diversity in health care, the issue of equity, and how that issue relates to underserved patients’ treatment.
Not only is the actual technology used in the DIH innovative, but to acknowledge the role social factors have in health care is a noteworthy advancement. To learn more about the DIH and the Icahn School of Medicine’s work, please visit the News Medical website for the full article.
One Million Solutions in Health takes pride in connecting with different communities to discuss major issues in health care. It understands the power that basic communication can have on innovation and the importance of diversity in health care. To learn more, please contact info(at)onemillionsolutionsinhealth.org.
Is Social Media the Key to Enhancing the Patient Experience?
The abundance of information and technology that is readily available has upgraded health care. Researchers are actively searching to find ways to improve patient care, but have they overlooked a simple fix? Social media, which often gets a bad rep, is where a large majority of people choose to communicate their issues and stories. Can social media data be just as valuable to the health care industry as data obtained in a lab? To find out more about the impact social media can have on healthcare, we encourage you to read this article.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.synthesio.com
There’s no denying that the quality of health care has improved with time. Researchers constantly seek ways to better understand health conditions and enhance treatment. However, even with so many advancements, there are still faults in the methods of care that healthcare workers perform. In health care, we expect the next advancement to be from new technology, but what if a new approach to treatment could have the same impact?
Social media, often used for leisure or marketing purposes, is a great tool for improving the patient experience. Carmen Yeung of Synthesio states that patient feedback on treatment and medical journeys can be beneficial to both patients and pharmaceutical companies. Patients’ voices are heard, and pharmaceutical companies can alter their products or offer the proper support as needed. Many patients are turning to social media to paint the picture of their experiences.
To analyze social media’s potential impact on health care, Synthesio, a social media analytics company, reviewed data from the social media accounts of patients diagnosed with cancer. The data showed the importance of direct feedback from patients. This information is highly valuable since it is rarely shared with medical professionals and/or companies. Yeung also mentions that it is important to pay attention to information patients provide in threads on support websites in addition to common social media sites; many patients feel more comfortable discussing different parts of their medical journey on different platforms. The data obtained also confirmed the use of different platforms being used to document different parts of a patient’s medical journey. Research indicates that of the cancer experience, support was the least mentioned topic on social media.
To ensure a positive patient experience, the focus needs to be on understanding the needs of the patient. The healing process should focus on two major aspects: the treatment of the actual condition or disease and the mental impact of having an illness. Keeping this in mind, medical professionals can change their approach to treatment. More people are looking for solutions online, so it would be beneficial to pay attention to those trends. Doctors can alter the dynamics of a visit by discussing some of the most frequently asked questions or common concerns patients may have. In return, this can improve the doctor and patient relationship, while also making patients feel more comfortable.
Paying attention to patients’ feelings surrounding the process of treatment can help them feel like they’re not just subjects, but people. In addition, this level of communication can increase the potential for personalized treatment in the future. For more information regarding the use of social media to improve the patient experience, visit the source information at the Synthesio website.
One Million Solutions in Health is a great place to stay up-to-date on health care information. We focus on trends, innovative technology, and all things in between to create conversation and find solutions. To learn more, please contact us at info(at)onemillionsolutionsinhealth.org.